LAUREL — After hitting its stride late in the 2012 football season, one might think that any momentum generated by the Laurel Golden Tornadoes might be lost by the program’s move from Class 4A to Class 5A this fall.

Not so, Laurel head coach Todd Breland said.

“With us moving into 5A, they take it as a challenge,” Breland said of the Tornadoes’ returning players. “We started slow last year, finished strong, and they got a taste of success at the end.”

To replicate that success across a whole season in a more challenging division, last season’s young players will have to step up as leaders on both sides of the ball.

“We have a lot of young kids coming back from a year ago,” Breland said. “We have a young linebacker corps that we’re expecting to have to step into that defensive role. We have our secondary coming back. We’re looking for a few defensive linemen to stand up.

“Offensively, we have a large number of core kids coming back. But you’re always gonna have to have depth at this level, so you better have more than one ready to go.”

Of all the young players returning from last season’s squad, the one whose performance may be most crucial to Laurel’s success this fall will be sophomore quarterback Keon Howard.

Howard threw for nearly 2,000 yards in 11 games as a freshman and once again will play a central role in the offense.

“I think like any other team, you hope your quarterback has an outstanding year,” Breland said. “We threw him in the fire a year ago, and he got better as the year went. We’re expecting him to get even better this year.”

With a large number of young players with game experience returning this season, the Tornadoes’ head man said he liked the way his team shaped up over the summer.

“We’re getting stronger in the weight room,” Breland said. “I saw us coming together as a team toward the end of the summer.”